Apple Pulls The Plug On Its Highly Secretive Autonomous Car Dubbed ‘Project Titan’

One major advantage for productivity buffs wanting the 13-inch or 15-inch M3 MacBook Air as their daily driver was that they could attach two external monitors instead of one, but that is only possible when any one of these models was being used in clamshell mode, or in other words, with the lid closed. However, a recent stress test shows that you can lose nearly half of the portable Mac’s original performance in this mode, which will make everyone wonder if the trade-off is worth the extra monitor support.

A short while after Qualcomm had officially unveiled the Snapdragon X Elite, the company claimed that its latest ARM-based silicon is up to 21 percent faster than Apple’s M3 in multi-core performance. When it comes to being the fastest SoC between the two, Qualcomm was correct in its claims, but not that much regarding accuracy, as you will find out shortly after we take a deeper dive into the latest performance comparison.

LPDDR6 will reportedly be finalized later this year, hinting that several phone manufacturers, including the likes of Qualcomm, MediaTek, and Apple, will integrate this technology in their future handsets. However, a rumor doing the rounds states that the upcoming Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 will be ahead of all its competitors as it will obtain support for this next-generation memory. In contrast, Apple’s A18 Pro, which will exclusively be mass produced for the iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max, could miss out on this opportunity.

Apple’s ‘Project Titan’ was the company’s self-driving car ambition that had an estimated $10 billion invested in the venture. After a decade of rash decisions, delays, and frequent leadership changes, the autonomous vehicle development was axed entirely. In addition to the ludicrous expenditure, the efforts of various teams, including the Apple Silicon, went up in smoke, as these individuals were nearly finished with a custom chipset that was equal to not one, but a whopping four M2 Ultra SoCs, which is Apple’s most powerful in-house silicon to date.

There was a slight chance that Samsung would have partnered with MediaTek to bring its Dimensity 9000 to its flagship Galaxy S series in the past. Given that the Taiwanese company took the premium Android SoC market by surprise with this release, competitors started taking note of MediaTek and where it could be headed. Unfortunately, the deal between the two firms could not materialize, with a tipster sharing that there was a scarce supply of the chipset, amongst other reasons.

The M3 MacBook Air offers little internal changes compared to its direct predecessor, but now, Apple’s latest chip is not only mass produced on TSMC’s cutting-edge 3nm architecture but also supports technologies such as hardware-accelerated ray tracing. However, how do all of these improvements translate into gaming performance? The short story is that while the newest MacBook Air can become somewhat of a portable gaming machine, it is best to keep expectations realistic, according to the latest framerate numbers shared.

Samsung is regarded as a major smartphone chipset customer for Qualcomm, which is likely why the latter recently renewed a multi-year agreement with the Korean giant to use its Snapdragon silicon. However, it can become worrisome if one company depends on just one client to bring in 40 percent of the total revenue for a specific quarter, but according to the data shared for Q4 2023, Qualcomm appears to be too dependent on Samsung in this regard. We have witnessed on previous occasions that things can go from bad to worse if companies cannot diversify.

Apple has a decent foldable product portfolio in the works, but when it comes to an actual launch, many reports talk about varying timelines. However, one analyst believes that a 20.3-inch foldable MacBook is the only one that has a clear development schedule in sight, and while that is a positive sign, the drawback is that consumers who are waiting for such a product have to wait an exceptionally long time.

The affordable variant of the Apple Vision Pro is not expected until 2025, but that does not mean that the company is not aggressively pursuing its launch through some consistent R&D. According to one report, one objective of this launch is reducing the cost of the display, with recent estimates claiming that the component price can drop by as much as 50 percent.

Apple’s iron grip on the ARM notebook and desktop space might be coming to an end, starting with Qualcomm and its Snapdragon X Elite. However, one rumor claims that Huawei is another player to enter this space, and there are claims that the former Chinese giant has already developed a competitor to the M1. Then again, the company might have obtained dependency from a slew of foreign companies in a bid to jumpstart its smartphone business, starting with the Kirin 9000S, but that does not mean that there are no other hurdles that need to be scaled.

It recently came to light that Apple had canceled its car project, which was internally referred to as ‘Project Titan,’ and with the abandonment, the company has re-assigned the 2,000 employees formerly stationed at the self-driving vehicle division to proceed with work on generative AI.

News has reached Chinese EV makers that Apple has shuttered its self-driving car development that was internally called ‘Project Titan.’ Xiaomi, the world’s third-largest smartphone brand, recently entered this category, and it, plus other players, have expressed their thoughts on the latest development. While some companies are shocked at this revelation, others agree with Apple’s decision, stating that there are other areas in which the technology giant can thrive in.